47% of businesses cite technology issues as the main barrier to website personalisation

Though more than nine out of ten marketers agree that personalisation is critical to their success, almost half of companies lack the necessary technology to properly implement website personalisation.

The findings come from the new Econsultancy/Monetate Realities of Personalisation Report, which found that 47% of companies cite IT roadblocks as a major barrier to adopting or improving website personalisation.

A similar number of respondents (46%) pointed to legacy technology, while 44% cited lack of budget.

In contrast, among respondents from marketing agencies lack of knowledge (54%) and inability to translate data into action (51%) took the first two spots.

Lack of budget and lack of staff are the third and fourth most cited barriers for both companies and agencies surveyed, highlighting the importance of prioritising resources that are often scarce.

The Realities of Online Personalisation is based on a survey of more than 1,100 digital and ecommerce professionals working for brands and agencies, carried out in February 2013.

It looks in detail at what is driving online personalisation, the tactics and types of data being used to tailor the online customer experience and the barriers to success.

Companies: To what extent do you regard the following as barriers to adopting or improving website personalisation?

Use of data

More than half (57%) of client-side respondents stated that they don’t currently use data from CRM systems or data warehouses to create personalised website experiences.

However agencies had a markedly different view, with just a third (34%) giving the same answer about their clients.

That said, the proportion of agencies and companies that stated they are definitely using CRM or data warehouses for personalisation is almost identical at 13% and 12% respectively.

Do you/your clients typically use data from a CRM/data warehouse to create personalised website experiences?

One of the main reasons that companies are failing to make the most of data available to them is fact that they don’t have one unified source from which to draw.

Disparate data sources emerged as the most significant obstacle (according to 30% of in-house marketers and 24% of agencies), although it’s interesting to note that 40% of agencies said that they simply ‘Don’t know where to start’.

What is the biggest obstacle to/preventing your clients from using data from a CRM/data warehouse to create more personalised website experiences?

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